Slave's Predicament
by Queen Farli
Summary: Oneshot. Prisoners of Azkaban are assigned as slaves to those they wronged the most. Sirius Black is one of the Slaves to be assigned, to Harry and another person. What will happen to him?


Sirius Black sat quietly in his cell in Azkaban, the Wizard prison, staring at the wall. He was wearing nothing but a tattered pair of underwear and was occasionally shuddering in the cold, his skin an unhealthy shade of blue. Though the Dementors had been removed from guarding the prisoners three years before; the guards still strived to make the prisoner's lives near unbearable. Today it was sub-zero temperatures, with spells to prevent frostbite, sickness and any other permanently damaging things. He was still cold though, freezing, and the chafing metal shackles connecting his neck to his feet and his arms to the wall behind him weren't helping, they were very cold, so cold they should be ing in the air, but weren't because they were goblin crafted, magic inhibiting too. The day before it had been roasting with similar spells, it normally kept one temperature for a few days, as soon as they started adapting to one extreme the other would come on instantly.

Sirius had been chained in that uncomfortable position for a week now, to make him stiff and sore and also unable to escape, for they had told him he would be going to his Master now, he was being enslaved to two war heroes from the Order of The Phoenix and they were afraid he might make a bid for escape like he tried to seven years before, Harry's third year. To his dismay then, a human warden had come in and spotted him changing, stunned him, and he had awoken with the magic inhibiting chains the next day. He felt dismal at the fact that his godson, Harry, d him with a passion and didn't know of his innocence.

Having nothing better to do, Sirius thought once again about his pending enslavement, slavery had been once again legalised on criminals, but as the slavery bond was transferred through the into their children; the slaves were spayed or neutered, (like a dog, ha ha, thought Sirius bitterly) so the children wouldn't be condemned for nothing. Following that train of thought, he cast his mind back to when he first saw a slavery ritual take place: it was the day after his eleventh birthday and his family had bribed the court into accusing a muggleborn of something fabricated and giving it to him as a slave as a birthday present and to show him the 'rewards' and 'pleasures' of being a pureblood Slytherin. Even as a 'well' brought up child he had always d human slavery, though he spared little thought to the House Elves; Kreacher deserved all he got, and he'd faltered, then couldn't do the incantation binding the slave irreversibly to him so his younger brother Regulas did it with Sirius' own wand and Sirius became secondary owner, he could order the slave to do what ever he wanted as long as it didn't conflict with the Primary owner's commands. His ownership had been revoked soon after his sorting, and transferred to his cousin, Bellatrix Black. The slave had died just before Christmas in Sirius' 5th year. In his icy cell the convict remembered exactly how the bonding ceremony worked with pinpoint accuracy and shuddered from a sick feeling in his stomach as well as the cold.

Suddenly the door to his cell flew open, revealing the slave warden and a man from Personnel. As he entered the Personnel man swore and yelled "It's ****** _freezing_ in here!"

"That _is_ the point" a nasal voice answered. "But it's colder than any of the others, look he's practically gone indigo with cold! Anyway, warm and clean him up, his owners wont want a dirty slave and if he goes out like that he'll die of shock or something!" with that the man stormed off, teeth chattering. '_Figures_," thought Sirius viscously, 'Me, probably the only here, has the worst conditions. I who have killed no-one am worse off than the Eaters who slaughtered millions, great justice here!' Smirking through his black beard, the warden crouched down and looked him in the face. The warden was familiar, a Slytherin who was often mercilessly pranked by the Marauders. "Like the cell I got for you, -traitor? Hmmm? I know you're but I want payback so you're going to make me an Unbreakable Vow!" at that Sirius' eyes opened wide with horror, he had been planning on revealing the truth so as to get better treatment, maybe like a human, but not with this. Gripping the chained convict's hand cruelly he muttered an unfamiliar spell and dirty brown light flew from the tip. The three parts were to never tell anyone that he was , never to explain about Pettigrew and never to reveal who made him swear the vow or how. Then the Slytherin Crucioed the poor slave-to-be and forced him to agree; he was in to much pain from the curse to fight the warden, and soon the deed was done. Sirius glowered at the man in unbound loathing and horror and the Slytherin laughed cruelly at him. Moving on he heated up the room swiftly, grinning at Sirius' howls of pain as the air around his body went from bellow -5 to 23 in an instant. Warden then cast several scourifys at the prisoner and taunted him about going in his pants. Well really, where else could he go, chained and unable to really move for a week, let alone get to the loo bucket? As soon as Sirius was clean the Warden unclipped his neck from his feet and his arms from the wall. Tugging the chain, the warden dragged an unresisting man into the main room to meet his new masters.

It wasn't a long walk but it was agony to the wretched man who was made to stand strait even though he almost couldn't. They entered a dimly lit room, with a small, artificial light in the centre. In the light was none other than Harry Potter, his Godson. He was going to be enslaved to his _Godson_?? Well, it could be worse he supposed, Harry was renowned for being kind hearted, but he wondered who his Secondary owner was. As soon as all the chains were removed, Sirius quietly took two steps, into the light and flowed to his knees, as gracefully as possible for one who had been in an awkward position for near 168 hours. On his knees sitting back on his feet, Sirius looked up, expressionless. There was an air of expectancy about the room, they were all waiting for Sirius to make groundless threats or beg for mercy, unknowing that he had already ranted away in his cell, cursing and crying his misery and frustration where none could hear, and was resigned, as well as unwilling to pointlessly debase himself in front of leering men and his new Master. Maybe if he was good and obedient, unvocal and calm he would be treated better or at least avoid punishment for the bonding ceremony. That was a futile hope. As soon as it became apparent that he wouldn't speak the Justice wizards looked furious, then a previously unobserved shadow stepped into the light and spoke in oily tones, hatred dripping from his lips: "Maybe it doesn't understand what is happening to it, it was always rather dumb in school. You are going to be _**ENSLAVED**_, Black. An obedient slave to Mister Potter and Myself." Sirius looked at the speaker in horrified despair; Harry may treat him okay but Severus Snape, his childhood nemesis, never. He barely heard the words themselves, flinching slightly at being called an 'it' but apart form that unresponsive.

When even Snape couldn't get a rise from him, a thug like wizard grabbed a whip from behind him and held it in front of the kneeling man's face. Just looking at it; Sirius felt sick to the core, a Cat o' Nine Tales with shards of glass embedded into it. Thug swiftly smashed it into his back, drawing a pained gasp from the man on the floor. "What do you say?" he leered. "Thank you, Sir" Sirius replied in an empty tone as pain ran over his back. The Warden turned a shade of puce to rival Vernon Dursley, and whipped him again, demanding why he said that. The bleeding Black smirked inwardly, delighting in confusing the man even through the pain. "I am soon to be a Slave, Sir, and a Slave is grateful to his master for punishing him, keeping him in his place, Sir. Though you are not my master I must still be grateful, Sir" he prattled off in a pan tone. The other occupants of the room gawked at him in astonishment, even Snape, for making such a polite and humble jibe at them, and knowing a slave law off by heart, something most slaves didn't know after three years, with only slight differences. The man gave him another blow for cheek and that time Sirius couldn't suppress a groan of pain. Gloating at his success the warden moved onto the next part of the ritual. "Do you know the Incantation, Sir?" he asked Harry. As soon as Sirius received the affirmative; he leant forward and laid his forehead on the rough stone floor, hands together on his smarting back, in a deeply submissive way. They all raised their eyebrows at his exceptional knowledge of the ritual. "Where the Mark, Mr Potter? The left hand? Righty o sir! And you?"

"Where the Dark Mark would have been, his inner left forearm" replied Snape's malicious voice. Sirius kept his head on the floor, glaring at the injustice of it, as he raised and held out his left arm without a sound. The Marker stabbed him twice with a sharp blade, on the back of the hand and left forearm, then Sirius wearily raised his head and opened his mouth, a foul liquid was administered into it, near choking him. He then placed his head back to the floor. He heard rather than saw Harry put a drop of his own on the tip of his wand then felt him dig it into his open wound, sharply. Then Severus Snape savagely dug his into Sirius' forearm wound, pressing hard and twisting cruelly. Harry spat out the incantation and the newly enslaved man screamed in agony as fire burned his veins and nerves as the binding magic infused with his . After what seemed like hours the pain reseeded and Sirius collapsed to the ground, gasping. Shakily, he forced himself to his knees and then his feet and looked at the floor in a submissive way. He could feel Snape's pleasure at the humiliation of his old school rival and now slave, and also Harry's hatred and uncertainty, through their .

Time for the neutering. They vanished his boxers but he knew better than to cover himself even though Snape smirked at him incessantly. One quick slash and it was all over, sterile in his 40s, which depressed him more than the pain did. A quick glance showed no , so a blocker knife, rare but effective. He looked at his hand, it had the Potter Crest burnt into it; a lightning bolt, a phoenix and a snake he wondered why in an abstract kind of way as he dealt with the pain. Where the Dark Marks on Eaters were, was an 's' shape made of interlocking rings, a chain, with shackles on and the words Property of Harry Potter, if found please return to the Ministry. That was deeply humiliating, labelled like a dog or a cat. He was jolted out of his stupor when he realised the workers and Snape were laughing at him; that made him blush for the first time that day. Thankfully Harry wasn't though his feelings seemed to be blocked, something that puzzled the slave greatly. Suddenly remembering something Remus had said he held out his left arm again silently. "What? You want me to get rid of the mark?" the oily voice jeered meanly. "No Master" he replied, falling to his knees much more gracefully now as he had unstiffened slightly, "All animagus slaves need a magic inhibiting chip, often placed in the first link of the slave symbol, Master. The Masters can then program in what spells they can do, if granted a wand. Otherwise it stops us transforming when we want to. Simple." The warden looked angry at being shown up and grabbed his arm roughly. He brought out a goblin craft arrow-head, very small and thrust it into his extended arm. The slave had to bite his lip until flowed to keep from crying out. The arrow head shape was so it would go in, stay in and be irremovable. The goblin magic helped. Suddenly smirking the guard whipped forward and cut a deep jagged cut into his chest, making him whimper, like a dog, in pain. "This is your punishment knife, keep it with you at all times" Harry read out, to which Sirius instantly replied to the affirmative. "Oi, Slavey boy, that there knife is worth near 100 galleons coz it's special. It's a healing knife, as soon as you put it back in it's sheath all the wounds will heal without a scar, even bits lopped off'll stick back on again. And it's charmed not to cut any living thing 'cept you, good huh?" The miserable man could only grit his teeth and nod.

The man then gave Harry a list of basic commands to read: Always tell the _complete_ truth (the truth was forced by the bond), do not attempt or under any circumstances, protect himself except at the expense of either master or anyone close to them and the list went on, even to inconsequential things. The final command was to lift the giant granite statue of a lion in the corner. His bond forced him to obey in a way not like the imperious but with strong mental urges and he could feel something bad would happen if he didn't. He tried with all his might to but couldn't make it budge a millimetre, with a terrified and heavy heart he went to his master and reported his failure. At the warden's command Harry ignored poor trembling Sirius, though Sirius could feel his regret, unease and nausea adding to his own as the bond reappeared. After three minutes of being ignored, an imperious like force took over his body. He grabbed the knife and with swift, sure movements started slicing and chopping at himself in places it would hurt most; screaming the whole time, and when Harry told him to stop he replied in a zombie like way "I am a bad slave. I disobeyed. I must be punished." Then he stabbed through both his cheeks and Harry turned away and vomited noisily while even Snape averted his eyes, disturbed. At the sound of his Master vomiting, he stopped slicing himself up and ran over to comfort him, as the bond required. As soon as Sirius sheathed the blade, the cuts healed and the toes and other things he chopped off reattached themselves swiftly, though the pain did not dull one jot. Finally the bonder men asked if Harry would like to rename Sirius legally. To his relief all he demanded was that Sirius loose the surname Black and get Slave instead; barely any difference in his opinion, and at least Harry didn't change it to something demeaning like Snape would have done. In fact he could hear his Secondary Master grumbling and felt his anger and disappointment very strongly.

After the greasy haired Potions Master conjured a painfully tight steel collar around his neck with a bone shaped dog tag on and a chain they dragged him, still undressed, out of the room and into the bustling auditorium of the ministry of magic. The light blinded him for a second but when he became accustomed to the light he realised every one had stopped and was staring at him, many laughing, smirking or taunting him delighting at the 's punishment, as he himself would have done to any Eaters in the same predicament or any other er, glad s/he got their come-uppance for their crimes. Once again he felt like crying as rushed to his face, hot enough to fry an egg, at both the embarrassment and the unjust accusation and punishment for an uncommitted crime. Sirius felt Harry's towards him but also an underlying regret and he even seemed slightly ashamed at his treatment. His Secondary master on the other hand was delighting in his pain and embarrassment. "Take it home, I need to see Hermione" Harry said expressionlessly then strode off as the crowd gave way around him. Snape smirked down cruelly at him and commanded him to crawl. He then strode off swiftly, over to the floo, dragging Sirius behind him. They got in together, Snape being careful not to touch the slave and looking down at him, disgusted. He called out Diagon Ally to the new Slave's confusion and then was yanked out, his emaciated body protesting at the treatment. Severus Snape forced Sirius to crawl through the streets at the busiest time of day, to embarrass him no doubt, across the sharp, gravely avenue, lacerating his knees, the top of his feet and the back of his hands as he was made to crawl ape like. Severus made Sirius sit outside the Magical Menagerie as he went in. After about 10 minutes, he returned with a proper dog leash, two food bowls and, strangely because of the nature of the shop, some jars of baby food. Sirius felt his head being yanked up by his hair as his master grabbed it then turned on his heel and apparated.

They arrived outside a nice, if modest, house and went inside. Just as Snape was about to close the door, there was another loud pop and a pained looking Harry appeared. He hobbled into the house, spasming and shaking quite violently. Sirius instantly leapt up and helped his Godson to a plush armchair in Gryffindor colours. To his surprise he felt waves of the same emotion coupled with gratitude emanating from the weak teen. "I told you to say down" stated a chilly voice, literally dripping with malice. The disobedient man flinched away from his secondary Master, trying to shrink in on himself. To Sirius confusion, Harry spoke up for him: "Really, Severus, the bond says that he should help us and try to let us live in as much luxury as possible, and my orders, even previous ones, over-ride yours" The older but lower ranked man stared up at young Mr Potter with surprise evident on his features, both at what he said and the assertiveness, the expectation to be heeded in his tone. "Well, you didn't think that you'd be continually abused, for obeying no less, did you?" considering that it was a rhetorical question, Sirius felt no urge to answer, so didn't. Unknowingly, Harry had hit the hail slap bang on the head, and that was before the slave had seen his Secondary Master.

When the former Potions Professor of Hogwarts School of and Wizardry stormed out of the room in a huff, and Sirius felt the pulse of amusement from his Godson; the new slave summoned up his courage and queried, as politely as possible what was wrong with Harry. Grimacing Harry replied that his body has suffered extreme cruciatus damage during the war and the backlash of Voldemort had burnt out much of his nervous system. Indignantly, the worried Godfather demanded why Harry was staying with Snape rather than at St. Mungo's. Unfortunately, he called his Secondary Master 'Snivellus', spoke accusingly and harshly to his Master and suggested he knew better, all requiring punishment. Realising that; Sirius swore forgetting that swearing was punishable too. He nearly swore again when the bond reminded him. "Well," stated Harry, eyes raised "Somehow I don't think a light caning to the hands will cover it, do you? How many wrongs were there?" When Sirius told him the number; the slave felt him mentally calculate and come up with an answer, then he felt his nausea and regret at his conclusion. Sirius felt the fatherly urge to reassure his 'son and told him not to regret disciplining a rude slave, even though he felt deeply ill inside. Harry looked up in confusion and asked, accusingly how he could tell. When Sirius explained what he had worked out on the bond; Harry nodded and suddenly his emotions were blocked from his servant. "Occulemency Shields" was Harry's answer to the raised eyebrows. "Ok" Harry said, realising that Sirius was looking more pained and his waiting time must be almost up "Cut off your hand. Now sheath the knife. Good, that was the tamest punishment I could come up with for that level of insults. Now, to answer your question, I am living with Severus because I want independence, or as close to that as possible, so St. Mungo's is out, and Severus has the most experience with nerve damage caused by the cruciatus since Poppy Pomfrey died and can care for me at home" he grinned slightly at Sirius' cynical expression "Yes, really! And I go and see a physiotherapist or what ever they're called most days with Hermione and her husband, my other best friend, Ron there for moral support. They said I'll need Severus for the next 9 months at least, so for now, we're stuck with him"

Together they left the lounge and Harry led Sirius to a small door opening into a small room with an ensuite toilet/shower room. This surprised the slave as he expected a dog kennel. "This is your room. You will always sleep here" intoned the Master of the house, subtly making it an order, to the disgust of Professor Snape, who was sculling just out of visibility but easily in hearing range. "Get washed before bed. Goodnight" and with that; Harry left the room. Nervously, the man named after a constellation walked towards the shower, expecting to be called back by a furious Master and breathed a sigh of relief when he got in without incident. He stood under the hot water for aeons trying to get rid of about 20 years worth of dirt which the scourify charm had missed. After his shower he shook himself dry, like a dog would, and then guiltily dried up the splashes with a hair towel, hoping that that would suffice. He left the bathroom feeling more relaxed than he had in a long time. He was barely fazed when he saw the dog-bowls by the bed, one with water in, one with baby food in. The baby-food seemed to be pretending to be Shepard's pie with carrots, but even that mush was better than Azkaban's rations. When he finished; he looked 'round the room. He saw the four poster bed with a fluffy rug lying by it; concluded that slaves don't sleep in beds and curled up on the surprisingly warm rug and fell asleep to the comforting thought that things could easily be much, much worse.

Snape had been watching through a security camera set up in the room. Sirius had seen it but had no inkling of what it was. Severus saw the resigned man look around and then go to sleep on the rug with bewilderment, why wouldn't he sleep on the bed? Then the professor remembered his uncanny knowledge of the slave bond, he must have had at least one slave of his own so was probably following the rules he set out to avoid punishment. Severus' lip curled into a smirk at that. Just as he was about to leave the spying room, he noticed Sirius thrashing violently on the rug, deep in the throws of a nightmare. He saw him sit bolt upright panting and wild eyed and relaxed very slightly at his surroundings. Still shuddering, Sirius curled up upon the rug in a dog like posture and tried to change, for comfort, forgetting about the inhibitor, thinking he could change due to the absence of the chains. Then he startled the watching Severus by starting to writhe and scream, silently as the camera didn't record sound, clutching his arm with fists clenching and unclenching, muscles spasming and throwing him around. After what seemed like ages to the comfortless man on the rug, the pain receded to a dull ache and Sirius grabbed a pillow from the bed, uncaring of the consequences, and hugged it to his chest, taking small comfort from it. As he unwound, he felt emotions through the bond that he had disregarded, calm and rhythmic ones from Harry, Sirius deduced that he was sleeping, and amused as well as _gleeful_ feelings pouring off Snivilus, he reserved the rights to think the demeaning name. How could he be watching, there were no windows or mirrors to watch through, glancing around the room, he once again came across the security camera up on the ceiling, the one thing that he didn't know what it did. He presumed that it was a spying device of some sort and flushed at the thought of what his Secondary Master would have seen. Severus had left by then, which was lucky as he would have been incensed by the look of loathing aimed through the camera, and startled at the perceptiveness of what he thought was a pureblood bigot.

The next morning Sirius woke up desperate for the toilet, but wasn't stupid enough to think that he could use the ensuite except when given permission (or was that: too stupid to realise that Harry was very kind, even to those he d and those facilities were for him?), so when Severus opened the door to his room while carrying refills for his bowls he instantly leapt up and begged to be allowed out side to do his business. Severus was about to scathingly reply about what the toilet in the ensuite was for when a thought struck him. He silently stepped to one side and Sirius ran out crying his gratitude as he went. He watched as Sirius ran starkers across the garden to the compost heap and did his business there, then buried it. More like a cat than a dog, Snape mused. The relieved man came to the disused outside tap, disused due to the water charms, more effective than hoses or watering cans by far, and washed his hands in it, attempting to not let the icy water touch the rest of his already chilled body. When he re-entered the house, he found professor Snape waiting for him outside his rooms, his bowls refilled. "Eat and drink like the dog you are, worthless mutt" he smirked with pleasure at his slave's embarrassment. Sirius had no choice but to obey though, and lapped up the water with his tongue and practically had to bury his face in the 'Apple Pie' baby food to eat it, with Snape's cruel laughter continually ringing in his ears. As soon as he finished, Snape put him outside, with a comment of they couldn't have him soiling the house when they were out, could they?

Harry was out at the physiotherapist's with Hermione and Severus went out to collect brewing materials and go to the Potions Master's Guild and Sirius was locked out of the house in the freezing, mid January air. He was shivering but there was no-where to take shelter. He realised with cold dread that he had to do what ever he could to survive, the bond required it. He was 'led' to the compost heap by it, he remembered from a Herbology lesson that decomposing plant matter (i.e. compost) give out lots of heat. Reluctantly he buried himself in the compost, holding his breath against the stench, and, eventually, fell into a fitful sleep.

He awoke almost eight hours later to his bond alerting him that his Primary Master was calling. He crawled out of his warm nest, into the snow outside. He was bewildered, there was snow up to his ankles and it was blizzarding out there. He followed his bond towards the house before realising that he was filthy. Sirius called "I'm here Master" then started rolling in the snow, his body screaming in pain, and found himself grateful to Azkaban's extremes as they meant that he could survive it, trying to clean off. When he realised it wasn't working he dragged his nub body to the tap, turned it on and saw that the water coming out had turned to ice. Harry suddenly realised where his Slave was and tried to open the back door, only to find it locked. He furiously unlocked it and threw the door open to admit an almost hypothermic Sirius, stinking and cowered with compost and his own excretement from earlier. Harry dragged him into the house and he screamed and went into shock at the violent temperature change on his body. He felt like he was on fire. Harry panicked and called Poppy's daughter, a healer-in-training, Daisy. She apparated instantly and was appalled with Sirius' condition. About 12 potions later they helped the unresponding man into a shower and gently warmed his body up properly. Then Daisy turned on Harry furiously to demand what was going on but stopped when she saw the paleness of his features and the horror pasted on. When she spoke; it was gentler than she originally had planned. "What did you do? He may be a slave and a er but that is just , he didn't do that!" Sirius was coming round and murmured something like "no' murd'rer" but they both thought it was from the delirious mind. 10 minutes later he had mostly recovered and explained what happened. As he spoke, Daisy and Harry got angrier and angrier, but neither could do anything against him, slaves had no rights at all. Sirius easily picked up on the fury emanating from his Godson and was frightened. "Master, please don't punish me any more, what did I do wrong?" They were both astonished and disturbed by how broken the poor man seemed, they had all heard stories of his humour, bravery and playfulness but this man seemed ruined, a husk trying to avoid more pain. Harry quickly comforted the trembling man and explained that he wasn't angry with _him_, oh no. After a final check up, Daisy left, worried about what else the poor man could suffer at his childhood nemesis' hand.

Suddenly, Sirius had an idea. He called his master over then took out the knife. He started to carve words into his arm: Me ….Pettigrew er Alive….Traitor…Secret Keeper…Unbreakable Vow not to tell. This was done to a mantra of: "Not telling… Punishment…Master just watching punishment…No break vow". Then he fainted from the pain. Harry read the lines again and again before sheathing the blade for the unconscious man. When Sirius awoke he saw an angry Master with emotions in a turmoil. "Why are you lying, you piece of filth?!" Harry roared. Sirius calmly answered that he wasn't, and said that he would make a Wizard's oath to prove it if Harry would program in the magic acceptance. Warily, Harry did so and Sirius picked up the wand. Holding it out in front of him, pointing up he stated "I, Sirius Orion Slave, do swear on my life and my magic: I am not a killer and I was not the Potter's Secret Keeper. I did not betray them to Voldemort." His aura glowed blue, the colour of truth and Harry was staggered. He inquired if that meant that he didn't kill Pettigrew or the muggles and Harry hugged him with joy when Sirius replied to the affirmative. It had been the young man that his parent's best friend, his own Godfather, would betray them to their s and that he had that very man in his house. The fact it was a different best friend dampened his elation slightly, but Harry was still happy until he remembered Sirius' predicament. A slave to a man who d him with a passion. The young man quickly programmed in every spell except the Unforgivables into the inhibitor and gave Sirius back his wand. Harry tossed the much happier slave some clothes and helped him together they went to wait by the door of the house for abusive Severus. He'll be feeling very sorry for himself when they're done with him!Harry smiled, "Now, we've just got to find a way to set you free from the Vow and Enslavement and announce to the word your innocence, Sirius Orion Black."

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A/N This is my first completed story and it strays off quite noticably. Please review and can somebody tell me what the ratings mean, please? Thanks for reading.


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